Save the Animals (That Includes Us)

We frequently hear we should do this, that, or the other to save the Earth. But, as was aptly pointed out by a new friend I lunched with yesterday, the Earth will go on without us, regardless of our survival as a species (or the survival of any other species on the planet, for that matter). Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of Earth science should realize this before long--"should" being the critical word. The Earth has a tremendous capacity for renewal; she can clean herself, recycle herself, and regenerate herself with far more skill and rapidity than we can ever hope to match, and has done so continuously to this day. We see that, for instance, in the rapidity with which polluted rivers and lakes refreshen themselves--as soon as we stop dumping in them.

So, if there is anything to be saved from us, it is us. WE are the ones who die when we drink water from polluted rivers and lakes, or eat the fish that have managed to survive long enough to be caught in them. To borrow a phrase from an old Star Trek episode: it is in our "enlightened self-interest" that we ought to live the green life--because we're just passersby here for a bit, and we make our time, and our children's time here, and that of many species on the planet, that much more difficult if we live out of balance with the Earth. She will go on without us, no matter what.

Overheard at the Coffee Cart

"Freezing out there this morning, huh?"
"Yes, I need the coffee! Heard it's going to be in the 50s on Tuesday and Wednesday, though."
"Wow, that's strange."
"Well, it's global warming, you know."

I live in the Northeast, and I've heard and had this conversation more and more lately. Global warming has become the stuff of small talk, an attempt to cut a huge and terrifying reality down to size. We were standing in front of a coffee cart that serves one fair-trade certified flavor, out of a selection of six. Fair-trade certification ensures that a food is sustainably grown and harvested, and the farmers who produce it (usually in the Third World) are paid a fair price by the companies that buy it.

And in that juxtaposition, between the conversation and the coffee, lies the connection between global warming, the food we buy, the food we eat, the food we should be eating, and the food some of us can neither afford to buy nor eat. This blog exists to explain those connections.

I hope this little blog o'mine will serve as a jumping-off point for your own exploration into that interconnection, and interconnections of all kinds, and makes real change in your beliefs and behaviors. In realizing our interconnectedness lies our personal, political, and cultural salvation--and we need to pick up the pace.